she sang the famous lyric to \u201cJust Because I\u2019m a Woman\u201d:<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cMy mistakes are no worse than yours, just because I\u2019m a woman.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parton had just explained to the crowd that the song was about a double standard \u2014 a reference to a frank conversation she\u2019d had with her husband soon after marriage, when he asked if she\u2019d been with other men. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you boys get married you want us to be just as pure as snow \u2014 well, sometimes we\u2019re not!\u201d she told the crowd. \u201cThis is for you, gals, and your boys just gotta take it, OK?\u201d<\/p>\n
The remarks were vintage Parton, making a point without alienating anyone. She was, after all, about relatability.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing about Dolly is that no matter what side of the political spectrum you\u2019re on, you think she\u2019s with you,\u201d Melnick says. \u201cEveryone claims her. And so as a feminist I always thought, well, obviously she\u2019s a feminist, and the more I read about her and wrote about her, it was just undeniable \u2014 first of all because of how she lived her life completely on her own terms.\u201d<\/p>\n
And those terms involved flipping the script, says music writer Caryn Rose. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe knew she was blonde and pretty, and that it was always going to work against her,\u201d says Rose. \u201cSo she figured out how to make it work FOR her. There’s not anything more feminist than that!\u201d<\/p>\n
Or take it from perhaps the most visible icon of the feminist movement: Steinem herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople who haven\u2019t listened to Dolly Parton or to feminism may be surprised to learn that they go together,\u201d Steinem wrote in that 1987 issue. \u201cShe has used her business sense to bring other women and poor people along with her. And her flamboyant style has turned all the devalued symbols of women to her own ends.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf feminism means each of us finding our unique power, and helping other women to do the same,\u201d Steinem wrote, \u201cDolly Parton certainly has done both.\u201d<\/p>\n
To Evelyn McDonnell, Parton\u2019s looks \u2014 the eyelashes, the big hair, the curves \u2014 served as an invisible cloak, helping her to freely express progressive views.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe took the objectification of being a pop star and embraced it,\u201d says McDonnell, editor of the music anthology \u201cWomen Who Rock\u201d and professor at Loyola Marymount University. \u201cIt was like her magic cloak \u2014 she could be saying feminist things and doing feminist things and modeling a life and a voice that was outspoken, progressive, political. But you saw the package and you\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, okay.\u2019 It made it safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parton\u2019s priorities, McDonnell notes, are clear from songs like \u201c9 to 5,\u201d from the movie in which she starred with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. \u201cIt\u2019s all about feminism, right? About women in the workplace, economic empowerment, pushing back against the male supervisor, uniting women\u2019s voices.\u201d<\/p>\n
Equal pay was just one of the key women’s issues Parton wrote about. She also, notes author Melnick, addressed reproductive justice, teen pregnancy, double standards regarding sex and “all of these very feminist issues … she was just doing the work quietly, in her songs.\u201d<\/p>\n
One such song was \u201cThe Bargain Store,” from 1975. \u201cI may have just what you\u2019re looking for, if you don\u2019t mind the fact that all the merchandise is used,” Parton wrote. \u201cBut with a little mending, it could be as good as new.\u201d <\/p>\n
Country radio, Parton said later, shunned the song because they took it to be about prostitution, when it was really about healing after a relationship. Melnick also sees a \u201cgutsy\u201d message about how a woman has value even without a man. <\/p>\n
Then there was \u201cDown from Dover,\u201d about a single teen mother. \u201cI wrote that back during a time when people didn\u2019t talk about unwed mothers,\u201d Parton told Vulture in 2023. \u201cThey wouldn\u2019t play that on the radio.\u201d<\/p>\n
Melnick posits that Parton, well ahead of her time, exemplified so-called third-wave feminism, which gained currency in the \u201990s with a focus on individual choice. A feminism where one could wear big heels, big hair and sparkly rhinestones, for example \u2014 as a choice.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s exactly how Parton framed her looks in a 1977 interview with Barbara Walters: \u201cIt’s certainly a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parton said later that people had warned her against talking to Walters, who’d chew her up and spit her out. But a 31-year old Parton, with quiet confidence and a generous smile, emerged looking far better than her interlocutor. <\/p>\n
Walters asked Parton if she thought she was \u201ca joke.\u201d She asked if she was faithful to her husband and why she was even married, if she was constantly traveling. She even asked Parton if her famous breasts were real \u2014 blaming the question on an assistant. <\/p>\n
Walters also asked Parton to stand up and display her body.<\/p>\n
Parton did, politely. But she was as tough as her famous nails when she explained why she was comfortable with the jokes \u2014 and, in fact, in on them. Her self-analysis echoed the words of Steinem, who has said feminism \u201cis fundamentally about self-respect and respect for others.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know exactly what I am doing and I can change it at any time,\u201d Parton told Walters. \u201cI make more jokes about myself than anybody … I am sure of myself as a person and I am sure of my talent. I am very content. So I can afford to diddle around with makeup and clothes and stuff because I am secure with myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
As some of her fans might ask, is there anything more feminist than that?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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